Revisiting an Early Thule Inuit occupation of Skraeling Island, Canadian High Arctic

Abstract

This paper presents the faunal material excavated from an Early Thule Inuit semi-subterranean house, house 15, from the Skraeling Island site (SfFk-4). In an effort to understand how the occupants of the house interacted with animals, a fine-grained zooarchaeological analysis is employed. Patterning in taxonomic and bone modification frequencies, skeletal element distributions, and prey demography are discussed. Inuit oral histories, mythology, and ethnographic sources are used to help interpret the results of the analysis and reconstruct the group’s subsistence economy.Cet article présente le matériel faunique provenant d’une habitation semi-souterraine datant du Thuléen ancien, l’habitation 15, située sur l’île Skraeling (SfFk-4). Afin de comprendre l’interaction entre les occupants de l’habitation et les animaux, une analyse détaillée des données zooarchéologiques a été produite. La répartition taxonomique, les fréquences des modifications des os, la répartition des éléments du squelette et la démographie des proies sont discutées. L’histoire orale inuit ainsi que les sources mythologiques et ethnographiques ont été utilisées pour contribuer à l’interprétation des résultats de l’analyse et pour reconstruire l’économie de subsistance du groupe

Walrus history around the North Water: Human–animal relations in a long-term perspective

“…As in many similar dwellings, whalebones were used in building the floor, as well as roof support. Interestingly, House 15 had seven walrus skulls incorporated into the house back walls (Howse 2013 ), a construction detail occasionally seen in Late Dorset winter houses, but usually not in Inuit context. Extensive use of whalebones in the unique architectural design of early Inuit winter houses have been interpreted as a strong reference to a whale, i.e.…”